Twin Brothers Marvin and Melvin Blumer Working Thei Way Up the Ranks Together

While MMA has had its share of brothers fighting during the same period of time, perhaps never has it had a pair that has more often competed on the same cards and are as identical as twin Minnesota bantamweights Marvin and Melvin Blumer.

In over half their bouts since they debuted together on a Feb. 20, 2010, Savage Beatdown show, the brothers have fought on the same card, often in back-to-back fights, including their most recent victories at King of the Cage: New Visionearlier this month.

MMAWeekly.com caught up with the duo known as the “Bash Brothers” recently to talk about their victories at KOTC, what it’s like to fight on the same card together and what goals they have set for themselves in 2013.

MMAWeekly.com: Firstly, Marvin and Melvin, tell us your thoughts on your wins at New Vision earlier this month.

Marvin Blumer (7-3): Matt Brown, for a while he was considered Wisconsin’s number one (bantamweight), so I knew it’d be a tough fight. I trained my butt off and I came out and showed that I could be one of the best around. I feel like I came out and imposed my will right away and had the opportunity for the armbar and just went for it.

Melvin Blumer (7-2): I felt like I did a lot of things well (against Danny “DJ” Sykora), but there’s still a lot of things I need work on. I’m disappointed I wasn’t able to finish the fight, but DJ’s a tough and really game opponent. His style was a little bit different to deal with, but I’m very excited to get the win unanimously by all three judges.

MMAWeekly.com: Tell us what it’s like for you to both fight on the same card together.

Marvin Blumer: As far as training, it just works awesome because our camps are the same way and we’re pushing each other the entire time. When it gets to fight night, it’s kind of a double-edged sword. It’s really awesome because hearing that he’d won right before me boosts my confidence going into my fight, but it also takes me out of things for a couple minutes to where I’ve got to kind of bring myself back into my game plan.

Melvin Blumer: I definitely try to keep myself focused on my task at hand, especially when I fight before he does. It makes it easier on me. But when it’s flip-flopped, it’s tough to keep focused on myself and my task at hand. One of the things that’s a bonus when you see us both fight on the same card is that you’ll see the best of both of us. Because we’re in the training camp and are in the mindset of what we have to do, we’re both there pushing each other.

MMAWeekly.com: Is there any competition between the two of you in regards to training or fighting?

Marvin Blumer: We kind of harass each other a little bit. My brother has a lot of first-round finishes. His timing is unreal and he catches people off guard when they’re not expecting it. So the ongoing joke between him and I is “When do I get to finish in the first round?” This time I finished in the first round and he went the distance, so it was like, it’s about time I got to finish in the first round.

Melvin Blumer: There’s a little bit of a friendly competition about who finishes faster or whatever, a bit of one-upping going on that’s kind of a side motivator.

MMAWeekly.com: It’s a great story for people to read bout twin brothers fighting and winning together, but do you ever feel any need to separate yourselves from each other?

Marvin Blumer: I really do enjoy the fact of being twins and that we can be better than most together. To me, I like the idea of being myself and showing what I can do in the cage, but I like the idea that we can both dominate as twins and teammates. I guess I’m so used to it over the years being identical twins sharing everything. For me, it’s more second nature for him to be in the spotlight with me than not.

Melvin Blumer: If people watch us fight, we have very different fighting styles. We try to go about things different ways. Being lumped together with Marvin, I enjoy, because when we’re both fighting it’s good for us.

MMAWeekly.com: Thanks for your time, Marvin and Melvin. In closing, what kind of goals do you have set for yourselves this year?

Marvin Blumer: What I’d really to keep fighting for bigger promotions like KOTC. Truly I just want to keep moving my way up into the Top 50, Top 100 in the world. I feel like my brother and I have always performed, even if things haven’t gone our way. So in the future I hope we get the opportunity to fight more top-level guys, and win, lose or draw, put on a good show for everybody.

Melvin Blumer: I want to get another tough opponent that will put me in the Top 100 in the world. After my win in Japan (over Keisuke Fujiwara in ZST) I was able to be in the Top 100 in the world, but after having a slow year last year I want to have more fights and prove to everybody that I am one of the Top 100 fighters in the world.